1841 Traité Des Maladies Vénériennes de Giraudeau de St.-gervais

This book, titled 'Traité des Maladies Vénériennes', was published in 1841 by Giraudeau De St.-Gervais. The work details venereal diseases, with illustrations showing symptoms and effects. The binding is leather, which provides durability and a classic appearance. The pages feature detailed illustrations in color and sepia, typical of the era. The spine is gilded with the author's name and the title. The book is in good condition considering its age, with minor wear on the binding.

Autographed dedication from the author on the front page. Large octavo bound, half green shagreen of the period, spine with five raised bands, framing fillets, engraved title, paginated 672 pages, frontispiece and 5 color lithographed plates, which show different skin infections, such as exanthems, vesicles, pustules, papules, and tubercles. Very rare, most copies encountered start - due to a printer's error on page 37. Bourquelot, IV, 102. The corners are slightly worn and the edges rubbed, otherwise a very nice copy free of foxing - - - Jean Giraudeau (1801-1861), born in Saint-Gervais (Vienne), studied medicine in Paris and dedicated himself to dermatology and especially to venereology. He gained great fame and fortune, resorting to advertising and the use of a plant remedy said to be anti-syphilitic. This work is adorned with five color plates illustrating patients with exanthematous lesions, vesicles, pustules, papules, and tubercles. It contains a poem by Auguste Marseille Barthelemy (1796-1867), writer and satirical poet (author notably of 'La Némésis'). This poem is actually akin to a pharmaceutical advertising work. If in the first canto, Barthélémy makes a striking and terrifying description of syphilis, in the following two cantos, he violently condemns the use of mercury and advocates the virtues of the Boyveau-Laffecteur remedy (which had been purchased by Giraudeau). Ehring, Skin diseases: 5 Centuries of Scientific Illustration, pp. 186-187: 'Apart from the main body of the text (according to Richter, a compilation taken from Biett and Gibert), his book also contains instructions on how to determine the history and present state of various illnesses. The appendix includes 100 pages on medications and a 45-page long Syphilis-poem in three cantos by Barthelemy. The 29 stipple engravings, which were printed in color and colored in subsequently as well, are kept very simple compared with those in other contemporary works.'